About Adam Carter

Walking through the ballpark as a beer vendor, countless people say, "That is the coolest job in the world!" As a veteran beer guy at Wrigley and The Cell in Chicago, I can attest it is quite a great gig, but there is another side to my story:

In the off-season, I pack a back-pack and travel the world as a roving goodwill ambassador. After raising money in the states during the summer (in addition to working every game), I then head to the developing world (SE Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East) in order to distribute the funds to schools, clinics and well-run non-governmental organizations (NGOs). direct link between its donors and its needy beneficiaries around the world.

I was born and raised in Chicago and started working at the ballparks fifteen years ago during my college years. After graduating from the University of Michigan (with an Honors Anthropology degree), I started to travel the world on a voyage of self-discovery and exploration, but in the process, I was profoundly effected by the poverty I found myself face-to-face with, so I went to graduate school so that I could seek a career helping these people in need.

I obtained my Masters in International Development from George Washington University in DC, still slanging beer in the summer months. I started doing some work with the UN (headed down to the shanty-towns of Colombia on research) and then received a Fulbright Scholarship to study the socio-economic effects of African immigration in Spain. But through these experiences, I realized that though I respect these large-scale organizations, in many cases, they are hampered by bureaucracy and too often, their aid does not reach many of those people in need.

So, the question I asked myself: HOW CAN A SIMPLE BEER VENDOR CREATE POSITIVE CHANGE IN THE WORLD?

I started raising money on a small scale to bring down to the favela shanty towns of Rio de Janiero, Brazil and the orphanages of Cambodia and then in 2008 was named Associate Director of a wonderful non-profit called 100 Friends. In the last five years, I have held many fundraisers and have then assisted over twenty incredible projects in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa (many of which are what we call 'Baby NGOs' run by local heroes). With the launch of Cause & Affect Foundation, I am now able to increase my scope of fundraising and giving. With the support of Chicagoans, baseball fans and players, I look forward to effectively distributing funds raised towards worthy, well-run, efficient projects both abroad and here at home.

I see myself as an important link between baseball fans and those people in the developing world that are suffering from poverty, hunger and disease; through my efforts (as well as e-mails, You Tube videos, blogs and press appearances), they learn about the plight of people on the other side of the world, and more importantly, they are able to help. The whole story is one that links the local with the global, the summer fun of Chicago baseball with the daily struggle of poverty. Best part about it is that it is evolving to bigger and better things, linking people through financial and spiritual goodwill.